Nationally-known pastor and author Francis Chan will be missing in action for the next few months—at least in the United States.

He recently sold his house and his family of four will leave for Asia on October 16, returning in December. After his Desiring God address on “thinking” and “loving,” Chan spoke with CT in the hallways of the Minneapolis Convention Center about his family’s plans and his next passion: discipleship.

You’ve transitioned out of your role as a pastor, and you sold your house. Do you know where you’re headed?
We have no idea where we’re going to end up. We’re heading to Asia for a couple of months, but we want to be freed up as a family, so if we feel the Lord is telling us to stay somewhere, we can. We want to learn from churches overseas.

Do you think you’ll still do ministry in the United States?
I think so. I definitely know that God’s called me to minister and preach. I have a real deep, strong calling to ministry. Even while I’m overseas I’m preaching a lot. It’s rare if there’s ever a week where I don’t preach four or five times. So I know that’s what I’m called to do.

It seemed like you were thriving in your ministry; what provoked the decision to leave your church?
I felt like there were a lot of ministers already in the community where I lived. There are 120,000 people in Simi Valley. You have all these pastors in this one area. I just thought why wouldn’t I go to a place where there are more people to be reached and fewer workers?

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